System is the third incarnation of the collaborative entity formed of Dub Tractor’s Andres Remmer, Opiate’s Thomas Knak and Acustic’s Jesper Skaaning. The Danish trio met over fifteen years ago and have since operated as D.A.W.N. the time of one compilation appearance, then Future 3 between 1995 and 2001, under which guise they released three albums and a handful of EPs and remixes, blending delicate strands of jazz, soul and drum’n’bass, and eventually, moving onto much more stripped down electronic forms, System. Their first self-titled album under this particular banner was published on Stefan Betke’s ~scape in 2002 and stuck close to the label’s dub and micro-beat ethic. The trio followed this with an EP, published on Danish imprint Rump Recordings three years ago, and now a second album. Continue Reading »

For the last decade or so, Icarus have continuously refined their sophisticated electronica, feeding it with layers of found sounds, prepared instruments, noise, complex rhythmic structures and electro-acoustic forms. Formed of Ollie Bown and Sam Britton, Icarus started in the mid nineties as a pretty conventional electronic act with a taste for minimal forms and beats infused with drum & bass, but progressively, the pair brought in less conformist sounds and developed a very different approach to their work, which reached full maturity for the first time with their 2004 album I Tweet The Birdy Electric, published on Leaf. Sylt, released in 2007 on Danish imprint Rump Recordings, was built around a series of live improvisations, which were later dismantled and reassembled into the seven tracks that made the album.

This remix album sees a wide array of artists, from Opiate to Isan, Svartag to Xela, Digitonal to Ital Tek, getting their hands on Sylt and once again pull its sounds apart to create something entirely new. Continue Reading »

Icarus, the duo formed of Sam Britton and Ollie Bown, began life as an experimental drum’n’bass formation, releasing records on Recordings Of Substance, Output, Hydrogen Dukebox, Temporary Residence and their own Not Applicable imprint. In recent years, their work has become much more focused on pure sonic experimentation, with albums such as I Tweet The Birdie Electric (The Leaf Label, 2004) and Carnivalesque (Not Applicable) showcasing incredibly dense and complex, yet light and airy, sonic formations, often built out of lengthy improv sessions.

The pair’s latest project is centred around two epic sister pieces, First Inf(e)rænce and Second Inf(e)rænce, each spanning well over fifteen minutes. Recorded live in May 2006 at Les Abattoires in Toulouse, France, during a single session, these two improvisations are amongst the most complex and intricate pieces the band have recorded. Continue Reading »